I rarely take advantage of these “free bagel” months because I feel guilty and end up buying a coffee or the cream cheese or both. FYI, they’ll give you butter for free.

My boss’s wife always bring a box back from their annual trip to Hawaii, but they also get made in Gardena, which is like a 15 minute drive from my house. It’s a little more special when she buys us each a pineapple. 

Exactly. Babies want to eat (as do toddlers and pre-schoolers). I’d rather buy a pouch or single-serving crackers and keep them happy than a bunch of grapes that will disappear during the course of our shopping trip. Usually they’ll even take my empties when I check out.

My local grocery store only ever has two real lanes open but there are six self-check out lanes. you can bet I’m going over there and checking myself out.

we take advantage of this every year. You don’t even have to go in the store. I buy $20 gcs for each staff member at daycare and then buy up to $300 for the household to spend during the year. When you pay with a gc, you aren’t using your red card, so there’s a trade-off. You lose that 5% but gain 10%. If we had a…

When I was in junior high, I identified a plagarized story in our high school’s literary magazine. The guy had blatantly ripped off Dave Barry and his “story” was so good that he’d gotten the coveted center of the magazine, where the staples went. I don’t think anything ever happened to him though. Nowadays,…

The southern California ones aren’t like the midwest stores. The menus and service are completely different.

I haven’t thought about this in over 20 years, but it was definitely a fixture on the middle school lunch menu in southwestern Ohio. But I never got to buy my lunch so I doubt I’ve ever done it. And it was probably Cincinnati chili, so maybe the cinnamon actually goes even better with peanut butter.

I’m a little younger than Drew (born in 1978) but I remember the 1984 Summer Olympics and not much before that in a newsworthy way. And we watched the ABC news every night, even before Peter Jennings started in 1983. But those earlier memories are hazy while the Challenger explosion is super clear. I have a 4 year old…

You should also look up “grey shirting” which is a newer phenomenon. Mostly it means taking a semester off after high school and enrolling in the spring, so you have an extra year to get bigger and stronger before college athletics. Disturbingly, it’s also being used in junior high, holding kids back in 8th grade so…

We had similar experiences. I’m a late December birthday and barely made the cutoff in the state I started school. (But I had to go to private school for kindergarten because it wasn’t available for all public school students.) Then in 2nd grade we moved to a state with a September cutoff and I had to personally meet…

we much preferred the halo ones to the summer infant ones. My daughter desperately needed to be swaddled, well past the typical age. We moved on to the Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit to help weight her down and keep her asleep. But my son is a thumb sucker and always managed to get that one hand free. He’s also a better…

Jameela is the best. Have you heard the Good Place podcast? They talk about how she literally knows everyone but also is totally cool and self-deprecating. 

And thank you for working on Thanksgiving. My mom had her first mastectomy nearly 20 years ago and they scheduled it in the day before Thanksgiving. Single mom/only child and I was a senior in college 2,000 miles away. I came home that week and it was super lonely being in the house while she was in the hospital but…

We happened upon that one the other day and watched with glee. HIMYM hasn’t aged well for me but Thanksgiving mixed with Slapbet is always enjoyable. I really like some of the Friends Thanksgiving episodes, especially the “triffle with meat” one and the one with all the flashbacks and the turkey on the head.

Although food banks are great, I also make monthly donations to a local diaper bank and a domestic violence shelter. As you mentioned there are many items that can’t be purchased with WIC/Food Stamps (laundry detergent, diapers, feminine hygiene products). If I have some really great coupons and I can combine them…

That’s good to know, I was about to forward this to my husband to check. I think our investments are each over $10,000 now but there may be a few funds that are just under.

I had it in second grade, the year I got tonsillitis five times. It was bout 3 or 4 when I had the chicken pox and pink eye at the same time. And my older cousin had bronchitis and strep but had already had chicken pox so they just left us in a bed together for a week and our parents alternated who stayed home with…

My cousin got them when she was 5, on the family’s first and only trip to Disneyworld. Her older brother had already had them so he went to the park with one parent and the other stayed in the hotel with the 5 year old. They covered her up and took her to the park on the last day of their vacation anyway. 

I’d rather eat at twelve thirty or one but I also have small children that nap in the afternoon and need to eat first. Thanksgiving should be at a real meal time. I wish we had appetizers, maybe I should bring some next year.